Database Administrators Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for database professionals who wish to improve their database skills and learn from others in the community. It's 100% free, no registration required.

1 Answer
1

NORECOVERY specifies that roll back not occur. This allows roll forward to continue with the next statement in the sequence.
In this case, the restore sequence can restore other backups and roll them forward.

RECOVERY (the default) indicates that roll back should be performed after roll forward is completed for the current backup.
Recovering the database requires that the entire set of data being restored (the roll forward set) is consistent with the database. If the roll forward set has not been rolled forward far enough to be consistent with the database and RECOVERY is specified, the Database Engine issues an error.